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A Hamlet Allowed to Grow at Its Own Pace

MARSHA AND EDWARD LAMADRID took the less-traveled route to suburbia: first they raised two sons in an apartment in Astoria, Queens; then, as empty-nesters, they moved to a quiet neighborhood of single-family homes in Tappan, a hamlet of Orangeburg in Rockland County.

"Typically people in Queens go east on Long Island when they move to the suburbs," said Mrs. Lamadrid, a clerk for the Bronx Supreme Court. "When we finally decided to trade in one lifestyle for another, we took off in a different direction."

When they were looking for a place to move to, they became smitten with the prospect of a direct commute to their jobs in the Bronx, and with the relative affordability of real estate in Rockland compared with some other suburbs. So they headed north.

Since the Lamadrids bought their two-bedroom town house condo 14 years ago, one of their grown sons, Daniel, and his wife, Veronica, also relocated from Queens to Tappan. Seven years ago, they bought a 1960's three-bedroom ranch in one of the hamlet's housing developments, later buying a larger home.

During the week, the senior Mr. Lamadrid and his wife commute separately down the Palisades Interstate Parkway to the George Washington Bridge. "Twenty miles door to door, and less than an hour on most days," Mrs. Lamadrid said. "Not bad."

Located in southern Rockland, directly on the New Jersey-New York border, Tappan is one of seven unincorporated sections of Orangetown. Often referred to as hamlets, unincorporated areas do not have their own elected officials.

Thom Kleiner, the supervisor of Orangetown, observed that Tappan, a suburb never directly served by a commuter railroad, avoided "the fate of overdevelopment" some other communities experienced. "The lack of a good rail network has had its pluses and its minuses," Mr. Kleiner said. "Basically, it allowed Tappan, which is the southernmost town in the state west of the Hudson, to develop at a more leisurely pace."

The Tappan Zee Bridge was not completed until 1955, and before that, Mr. Kleiner said, "there really was no way to get across the Hudson." The George Washington Bridge notwithstanding, he said, there were few north-south roads conducive to a daily commute by car until the Palisades Parkway -- which runs from Fort Lee, N.J., through Rockland to Bear Mountain -- was completed in the mid-1950's.

For public transportation, New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line runs commuter trains on weekdays between Spring Valley and Hoboken, N.J., and Red and Tan/Rockland Coaches operates buses between Rockland and locations in New York City.

Tappan bears the imprint of two distinct groups of settlers: the Europeans who arrived in the 1600's and the New York City dwellers who moved to the hamlet in the second half of the 1900's.

The transplants from the city settled in new ranch- and colonial-style houses in developments built 30 and 40 years ago. In addition to the tract housing, which sprawls throughout much of Tappan, the hamlet has three condominium complexes. A small stock of older single-family Victorians and Cape Cods is scattered on smaller lots.

By contrast, the Village Green, a designated historic area, is a reminder of Tappan's role in the Revolutionary War. Located in the southeastern portion of the hamlet and settled by the Dutch in the 17th century, the area became an intense focus of activity during the latter part of the following century.

In 1774, the Orangetown Resolutions, which threatened to repeal English laws like the tea tax that curbed American liberty, were signed there. Close by, the DeWint House, where Gen. George Washington had military quarters, still stands. Also extant and in operation is the Old '76 House, a tavern where Maj. John Andre, the English spy, was held before his hanging in 1780.

Today that area of the hamlet consists of several blocks of wood-framed homes, small office buildings and enterprises like a pet-grooming establishment and a coffee shop, most of them in structures from the early 1900's.

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The elder Lamadrids were first introduced to Tappan by co-workers in the Bronx, who claimed real estate values were better in Rockland than elsewhere. That is a commonly held notion, although agents in Rockland said it is too difficult to make precise comparisons because of variables like lot sizes and square footage of houses.

"At least the perception has been that you get more bang for your buck in Rockland," said Jeanne Shields, the manager of Weichert Realtors in Nanuet. "But whether that really is the case, I don't know. Certainly compared to Westchester, it's a better deal."

In suburbs outside New York City, the median sales prices for single-family homes vary widely. Nassau County's median reached $437,000 and Suffolk's $362,000 at the end of December, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. In Westchester, the median for a single-family home was $615,000 at the end of last year, according to the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.

The Rockland County Board of Realtors reported a median of $457,650 for the last three months of 2004. In Tappan, the median price was $500,066, about 9 percent more than for Rockland as a whole, Mrs. Shields said.

There are other reasons for moving to Tappan, like the quaint charm of the area around the Green.

After hearing about a 130-year-old clapboard office building for rent in the historic district, David Englander, a lawyer, decided to move his offices from 57th Street in Manhattan to Tappan. Instead of driving an hour or more through rush-hour traffic to get home, Mr. Englander pulls up to his front door in nearby Palisades within six minutes of leaving his cozy office with its wood floors, high windows and elaborate moldings.

Another businessman, Jerry Hong, a pharmacist, worked on the Upper East Side of New York City for 20 years before he decided to buy Storino Pharmacy in Tappan five years ago. In contrast to Mr. Englander, Mr. Hong now has a much longer commute, driving an hour and 15 minutes each way to and from his home in Brooklyn. "But it's worth it to me," he said. "The business atmosphere here is much less pressured than it is in the city, the people are more easygoing, and I like being the only pharmacy in town."

The South Orangetown Central School District has also served as a magnet. Its students fared well on the SAT's last spring: a mean of 534 on the verbal part of the test and 561 and the math portion, above the statewide average last year of 496 for verbal and 510 for math.

The school district uses the Princeton plan, a system in which all students in the same grade attend the same school. South Orangetown has 3,578 students in five schools: a high school for Grades 9-12; a middle school for Grades 6, 7 and 8; and three elementary schools, one for Grades 4 and 5, one for Grades 2 and 3, and one for pre-kindergarten through first grade.

The Princeton plan, first used in Princeton, N.J., in an attempt to achieve racial integration, was instituted in the South Orangetown schools in the early 1980's to overcome socio-economic differences that previously existed in the separate hamlets and villages, said Jane Sandbank, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

One open question among residents is how to pronounce Tappan. Some say it is Tap-PAN, while others prefer TAP-pan, as in the Tappan Zee Bridge. So far, a consensus has not been reached.

Even Mr. Kleiner could not offer a solution.

"I thought I knew, but I guess I'm not sure these days," Mr. Kleiner said. "That's something we'll have to settle at a later date."

For now, the supervisor said he is focusing his energies on further enhancing the charm of the Village Green. The town is spending $750,000 to remove overhead utility wires on nearby streets and reroute them to the rear of buildings, and to install brick pavers on crosswalks and sidewalks. "The goal is to make one of Rockland's prettiest assets even more picturesque," he said.